HEIAN PERIOD (LAST HALF 11TH CENTURY)

The head is related to a late eleventh-century example, also in assembled wood construction (yosegi tsukuri), in the Worcester Art Museum. John Rosenfield has described that head as having suave and markedly confident features, extremely close to those of certain dated works of the late eleventh century: the Twelve Divine Generals of Koryuji, Kyoto, of 1064; or the Bishamon of the Kondo of Horyuji, 1078. The works are a product of an atelier of the Heian capital and of the generation that followed the sculptor Jocho. For an illustration of the Worcester head, see John Rosenfield, Japanese Arts of the Heian Period: 794-1184 (New York: The Asia Society, 1967), pl. 20.